As 2014 draws to a close I am not at all surprised to notice that U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster named culture the word of the year. As somebody who professionally deals with culture I feel that the word could get that nod every year.
2014 was a year that brought tremendous growth for me – professionally and personally. In fact, 2014 was the most successful year in company history at Höferle Consulting. We have been able to bring on new team members, new clients, and new concepts to serve our customers.
2014 has also been a year of exciting personal growth. I’ve been exposing myself to a new environment of positive energy. My mentors and coaches have been keeping me accountable. And as a result, this has sent my approach to doing business to a new level. For the past six months I have been part of a Global Mastermind Group which gave me a new nick name: The Culture Guy.
If the shoe fits, wear it!
Merriam-Webster defines culture as the beliefs, customs and arts of a “society, group, place or time.”
Throughout the year I’ve been distributing various definitions and aphorisms around culture. I put together this gallery to review some of them for you.
What’s your favorite definition of culture? Or perhaps your favorite story around culture?
Feel free to share in the comments below.
Have a cultural 2015!
Yours,
Christian
The Culture Guy
Christian is a cultural trainer, coach, and consultant with extensive experience in working with multinational companies and especially in developing global leaders. He is the President and CEO of The Culture Mastery, LLC, where he leads a team of dedicated training, destination services, and expat support specialists. Christian works with global organizations (or those who are going global) to help their employees overcome cultural differences. Typically he only uses the word “normal” in quotation marks and he is an advocate for helping people understand the why of behaviors – not just the dos & don’ts. Most just call him “The Culture Guy”. Find out more about Christian here and follow him on Twitter. You can also see him, listen to him, and experience his work – just invite him!
Southeast Schnitzel 
Frohe Weihnachten Christian. Here is an interesting fact that I thought you might find fascinating from “Native Tongues” by Charles Berlitz: German almost became the official language of the United States of America. The Continental Congress, convened in Philadelphia during the Revolution, at one time considered adopting a new language for the future United States, perhaps with the aim of cutting all ties with England. Among the languages suggested were German, Hebrew and French. German was the most favored for several reasons: there were many German-speaking Americas in Pennsylvania and other states; Dutch settlers in New York and elsewhere could learn to use German easily; German would be easy for other colonials to learn, since it was basically similar to English; the Hessians, German troop levies “rented” by the Brittish, were deserting to the Americans and many wished to remain in America. Nevertheless, when the proposition came to a vote, English was chosen as the language of the new republic – by the majority of ONE vote! By the way, my wife, Theresa Hackenberg (Hachenberger) is a descendent of a Hessian soldier.
Frohe Weihnachten to you too, Jack!
I’ve always loved the story about German almost becoming the language of choice in the emerging American nation. But I’m not so sure about its accuracy. Check out these sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language_in_the_United_States#German_as_the_official_US_language_myth
http://www.us-english.org/view/295
http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/zwiebelfisch/onionfish-german-as-the-official-language-of-the-usa-a-306711.html
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa010820a.htm